Speeches, protests mark Harvey Milk Day

NEWS

by Matthew S. Bajko

About a dozen people from Queers for Economic Equality
Now sat down in Harvey Milk Plaza on May 22 – Harvey Milk Day – to
show their opposition to San Francisco's sit/lie law. The late supervisor was
opposed to a similar law criminalizing sitting on the sidewalk. There were
companion actions on Polk Street and in Berkeley. (Photo: Rick Gerharter)

This year's observations of the second annual Harvey Milk
Day in the Castro brought out a number of the celebrated gay politician's
friends and former City Hall aides to honor his legacy.

It also drew a number of protesters to the city's
gayborhood, from nudists and hotel workers to demonstrators opposed to the
city's sit/lie law and Uganda's notorious anti-homosexuality bill.

"It is Harvey Milk's birthday. It is appropriate to speak
out and have a presence," said Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who helped organize a
sit down at Harvey Milk Plaza Sunday, May 22 against the newly enacted
ordinance prohibiting people from obstructing city sidewalks during certain
hours.

A few male nudists also showed up, continuing their ongoing
attempt to bring attention to their cause. Others took part in a die-in to
oppose the Uganda bill that would, among other penalties, legalize the
execution of homosexuals.

Members of Unite Here Local 2 passed out fliers demanding
that the Human Rights Campaign downgrade its ranking of Hyatt Hotels on its
annual corporate equality index. The hotel employees have been in a years-long
contract dispute with the hotel chain, whose properties in San Francisco are
the focus of a boycott.

The workplace dispute tied into a push Avicolli Mecca and
other LGBT leaders have embarked on to make economic justice issues a larger
focus within LGBT circles.

"Economic justice was important to [Milk.] It is why so
many flock to his banner," said labor organizer and transgender activist
Gabriel Haaland, who brought his dog Lucky to the plaza protest.

Across the street at the official city ceremony at Jane
Warner Plaza, speakers also stressed that Milk was not a single-issue
politician.

"It is important to remember he was one of us. It is
also important to remember he was part of the movement, the larger
movement," said Cleve Jones, a labor and AIDS activist who helped elect
Milk in 1977.

The day also saw the opening of the Trevor Project's Harvey
Milk Call Center inside the HRC store and action center located where Milk had

Across the street from the protest, Stuart Milk, the
nephew of slain Supervisor Harvey Milk, spoke to a crowd of about 100 at Jane
Warner Plaza, on the second observance of Harvey Milk Day, which would have
been Milk's 81st birthday. (Photo: Rick Gerharter)

his camera shop at 575 Castro Street. Trained counselors will answer late-night
calls to a suicide prevention hotline for LGBT and questioning youth run by the
national group.

Also found inside the HRC store is a number of Milk-branded
items. Tags on the merchandise, which include $59.50 zippered track jackets and
$25 T-shirts, say that 20 percent of the purchase price will be donated to the
Castro's Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy and 20 percent will go to the Harvey
B. Milk Foundation.